Black Friday and Shopping Carnivals in Various Nations

Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, marks the beginning of a shopping spree in the United States. Traditionally, Americans begin their Christmas shopping this day, and retailers across the country open their outlets for longer periods of time compared to other days of the year. Black Friday signifies the onset of the Holiday season, and people are inundated with discounts and other promotional offers.

Similar shopping festivals are held in various countries, and most of them draw their inspiration from Black Friday celebrations. Let us now look at a few shopping festivals in different nations of the world.

Canada

As in the United States, Black Friday marks the beginning of the Christmas shopping season in Canada and most people shop extensively this day. For years, most Canadians living in highly populated urban centers on Lake Ontario and in the Lower Mainland have crossed the international border to shop in America. However, this trend has witnessed a decline from 2008 due to various factors such as the near parity between the Canadian and American currencies and aggressive marketing campaigns by Canadian retailers. Over the last few years, many Canadian retail outlets have come up with discounts and promotional offers that proved very successful in reducing the number of people making holiday purchases in the United States.

Mexico

The Mexican version of Black Friday is known as El Buen Fin, which can be translated as The Good Weekend. It is celebrated on the weekend prior to the Mexican Revolution holiday. The event is organized by various organizations such as the Bancos de México’s Association, the Mexican Internet Association, etc. The Mexican shopping festival has been in vogue since 2011, and on this day, retailers come up with various schemes such as extended credit terms and reduced prices.

Romania

The concept of Black Friday was introduced in this east European country by eMag and Flanco in 2011, and it received a good response from the populace. Several hundred retailers have participated in the shopping fest of 2015, which caught the attention of 73% of the country’s population. Romania is one of the few countries where the Holiday shopping fever has become widespread within a short time.

India

The e-commerce sector in India, which is likely to touch the 100 billion USD mark by 2020, is playing a key role in popularizing shopping festivals similar to Black Friday in the world’s second most populous country. Major “e-tailers” such as Amazon, Flipkart, and Snapdeal offer large discounts on the occasion of major festivals in this Asian nation. An online shopping carnival called the Great Online Shopping Festival was organized by Google in December, for three consecutive years (2012 to 2014). The event was a major success in bringing various players of the Indian e-commerce industry on a single platform and gave a huge fillip to the nation’s online retail sector.

Thus, we see various countries celebrate shopping festivals modeled after Black Friday. Wishing you a very happy shopping experience this festive season.

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